The deteriorating classifieds culture

[dexterdent]

17 hours ago, Mountain Bru said:

Only buy and sell from okes that have 100+ forum posts and most of your problems will go away. 

Great idea, should we call this the "bru'tjie rule"?

[Jewbacca]

34 minutes ago, rampies said:

If it wasn't for the classifieds, then this would merely be a chat room frequented by a few. The current format pulls many people in with classifieds and then some stay to learn there is a plethora of knowledge and contacts, etc. here. Take the good with the bad I reckon.

Well, realistically, if there wasn't a classified the forums wouldn't exist at all. There is no way to monetize the forums, so they rely on the classifieds to fund them. 

I doubt anyone would want to keep this going for free as it is laborious and we are often idiots.  

[Pandatron]

7 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

 we are often idiots.  

Thats very generous

[Rudii]

21 hours ago, cadenceblur said:

Indeed but common decency appears to be lacking , I guess not only here. Used to be different I guess.
 

Had people make me offers on items I listed, I accept their offer then just for them to not respond. Common decency to just let the seller know you are no longer interested, I don't even need to know your reason just let me know if you don't want to go through with the deal.

[Mountain Bru]

1 hour ago, dexterdent said:

Great idea, should we call this the "bru'tjie rule"?

Goated comment. 

"Enforce Rouxtjie Rule" should be an option on every ad posted. 

[The Ouzo]

you would think that because this is more of an informal buy/sell platform that this kind of behaviour would only exist here, but it doesnt.

Its not secret that I'm a Car Salesman, I deal with new cars. Daily we get responses to our social and web adverts requesting a call back regarding x model or other. The system is setup in such a way that its almost instant once the person on the other end has entered their info and pressed send. 99 out of 100 requests you do not get hold of the person. Phone will either go direct to voice mail or ring and then go to voice mail.

You can send an email, nadda, nothing, not even an echo.

 

People just dont care anymore.

But the worst part is that because this is a business, these queries are logged, and then at the end of the month you get told you've had 200 enquiries but only sold 5 cars, what is wrong with you.

[BaGearA]

16 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

you would think that because this is more of an informal buy/sell platform that this kind of behaviour would only exist here, but it doesnt.

Its not secret that I'm a Car Salesman, I deal with new cars. Daily we get responses to our social and web adverts requesting a call back regarding x model or other. The system is setup in such a way that its almost instant once the person on the other end has entered their info and pressed send. 99 out of 100 requests you do not get hold of the person. Phone will either go direct to voice mail or ring and then go to voice mail.

You can send an email, nadda, nothing, not even an echo.

 

People just dont care anymore.

But the worst part is that because this is a business, these queries are logged, and then at the end of the month you get told you've had 200 enquiries but only sold 5 cars, what is wrong with you.

Sorry ne but this is almost 99% due to your marketing dept's very bad targeting 

 

Just go look at your ad campaigns comments, if it includes comments like:

 

"I want it" 

"This my car I love it" 

"Where" 

"Price"

 

Then that fancy tool with such a low response turnaround time is actually a colossal waste of money

[The Ouzo]

39 minutes ago, BaGearA said:

Sorry ne but this is almost 99% due to your marketing dept's very bad targeting 

 

Just go look at your ad campaigns comments, if it includes comments like:

 

"I want it" 

"This my car I love it" 

"Where" 

"Price"

 

Then that fancy tool with such a low response turnaround time is actually a colossal waste of money

100% agree with you. but you know that saying about repeatedly hitting your head against the wall and expecting a different outcome, that applies to our marketing.

And its not just this company, but others I've worked with too.

[Dexter-morgan]

I must be honest, I will keep on trying to sell here, I have sold some items on facebook but lately you get 100 messages from really questionable people, then I just ignore, so I stopped with Facebook market place. 

[Dan Dob]

Having moved to the UK last year (with a huge cycling community), I have really missed Bikehub classifieds and realise I really did not appreciate the huge service BikeHub offer . There is no similar online place here where you can buy 2nd hand from cyclists and so you have to deal with Facebook Marketplace with is generally a vomitfest. So I just want to say well done and thank you to Matt and the team for creating and keeping BikeHub alive!

[shaper]

14 minutes ago, Dan Dob said:

Having moved to the UK last year (with a huge cycling community), I have really missed Bikehub classifieds and realise I really did not appreciate the huge service BikeHub offer . There is no similar online place here where you can buy 2nd hand from cyclists and so you have to deal with Facebook Marketplace with is generally a vomitfest. So I just want to say well done and thank you to Matt and the team for creating and keeping BikeHub alive!

Try here as an option for UK https://www.lfgss.com/

[Vaultboy]

1 hour ago, The Ouzo said:

99 out of 100 requests you do not get hold of the person. Phone will either go direct to voice mail or ring and then go to voice mail.

You can send an email, nadda, nothing, not even an echo.

Telemarketers (and failure to enforce POPI) have basically created a situation where no one answers cold calls from unknown numbers anymore. 

Can't say about emails, though. 

 

[The Ouzo]

2 minutes ago, Vaultboy said:

Telemarketers (and failure to enforce POPI) have basically created a situation where no one answers cold calls from unknown numbers anymore. 

Can't say about emails, though. 

 

there is that, but if you've requested that a company call you, surely you'd be expecting a call

[RobynE]

1 minute ago, The Ouzo said:

there is that, but if you've requested that a company call you, surely you'd be expecting a call

Slight digression but when I specifically say “please don’t phone me, please email or WhatsApp XYZ info” and the phone immediately explodes after I hit send, it’s a hard no. I want to be able to look and read and digest and research and then I’ll come in and see you. All of my current cars (5 in my fleet) were bought through a salesperson being active and capable over WhatsApp. 

[The Ouzo]

Just now, RobynE said:

Slight digression but when I specifically say “please don’t phone me, please email or WhatsApp XYZ info” and the phone immediately explodes after I hit send, it’s a hard no. I want to be able to look and read and digest and research and then I’ll come in and see you. All of my current cars (5 in my fleet) were bought through a salesperson being active and capable over WhatsApp. 

100%

and there in lies another problem, one of the sites has an automated system, when you hit send it immediately connects your phone and my phone together, it will look like I'm phoning you. But the only information I have at this stage is your name (mostly incorrectly or incoherently  pronounced by a computer) and the car you're interested in, any other notes or info will only come through AFTER we have had a conversation. So if you've requested to only be contacted via email/whatsapp or only wanted a brochure emailed to you, I wont know until we've spoken and put down.

But old school mentality making the decisions says customer MUST be called.

 

but we are digressing from the OP.

[vanniri]

Methinks we should allow comments on ads back.

It used to provide me with hours of fun